Healthcare in the Shadows

Prescott Health Clinic

Posted by on Monday, June 1, 2015 in News.

Rebecca Oldani, MSN, FNP-BC is a woman on a mission to make primary healthcare accessible at an affordable price, using a sustainable business model.  When the local community college shut down its student health service three years ago, Oldani formed her own professional limited liability corporation, set up a clinic a few blocks away and opened two months later.  “The students had no where to go,” she told me. “Without insurance and even with insurance, it is very hard in this community to get into a primary care provider’s office to be seen.  New patients with insurance can wait more than three months for an appointment.  Without insurance, you can’t be seen at all or the cost is so high, no one can afford it. People are forced to seek routine care in the local emergency room which costs them way too much and is not the right place for effective primary care and prevention.”

Services and Population Served

Office manager, Kitty, and nursing assistant, Allana at Prescott Health Clinic

Oldani and her staff of three, offer primary and preventive care, episodic care, and routine physicals in a small office behind the Yavapai Hospital in Prescott, Arizona.  The clinic does not take any insurance; payment is cash or credit only.  They serve patients age 10 and older.

The city has about 40,000 people, nestled in the hills of the high desert country in central Arizona, with the surrounding areas of Prescott Valley and Chino adding another 60,000 or so.  There is only one hospital in the area for the general public (there is a small VA facility in Prescott).  With two colleges in town, older adolescents and young adults make up a significant portion of the clinic’s 5500 unique patients.  The clinic also sees people whose insurance co-pays are higher than the modest $43 per visit that Oldani charges.  Some insured patients don’t like their assigned primary care provider; other patients, many uninsured, come to the clinic because they feel respected and valued by Oldani and her staff.  That was the sentiment expressed a by a large Hispanic family in the waiting room on the day of my visit.
Successful Business–Accessible Care

Rebecca Oldani, right, confers with her practice partner, Debra Hiller

Can a cash/credit only NP primary care practice work, financially?  Well, Rebecca Oldani has pushed hard to create a sustainable business for herself and low cost healthcare access for her patients…..and three years later the business is firmly in the black, the support staff and nurse practitioners are paid a fair wage, and over 5000 satisfied patients have had access to care at a price they can afford to pay.  Prescott Health Clinic (www.prescotthealthclinic.com) is a success by all measures, thanks to the vision and passion of a determined nurse practitioner.

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